DOWN AND OUT

That bastard Guilder sold us out. I’m lucky to be here, drinkin’ Second Best ‘memberin good times and bad. I’ll never forget his name. Duke Alexandar. Bastard. Rat lyin’ son uvva sump whore bastard. Its been years since it happened but what he done to my crew and those other poor fools…wrong it was. I’ll never forget the day. Said he knew ‘bout a untapped hoard ‘o tech. Us being hard up for creds we had to take the offer. Being a ganger is tough enough, but we was Sump Pirates, lowest of the low when it comes to scum.

Ol’ Barboza led us to Hell that night, me and the Scallywags locked and loaded.
Little did we know that bastard Guilder gave the same info to Clarence and his gang of Slaver mercs.

Boy was we surprised to see their ugly faces!
We started the party, popping off shots from our lasrifles and shotguns. They fired back and a few of us and a few of them got tagged. It was dim on the street we was scrappin on, and just a few paces past the last alley it was pitch black.

‘Bout a good ten minutes into it, one ‘o Clarence’s boys gets himself riddled with bullets. Part of the job you know? Live by the gun they say eh?

Anyway, as soon as he hits the dirt is when we start hearing all the damn growling and moaning.

I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, thought it was just the dome creakin’. You know like the ratskins say, spirit of the Hive and all that.
Some of Clarence’s boys come rushing straight to us and some scatter towards the darkness. That tough old b!tch Sally clambered all the way up to the top of the generator tower. Bootstrap and Shadowbeard laughed as she nearly fell, but I wasn’t laughing.
I had seen them.

Zombies. At least two dozen of them and more shuffling through the alley. Walking corpse’s hungry for our flesh….
It was horrible. One by one our boys were getting’ taken down by these things.
Clarence hiself got mauled to bits by a gang ‘o three zombies. Poor fragger….least he didn't turn like Joe the Hook....

Those that fled into the darkness received a much harsher fate than those that stood their ground on the street. I should have recognized the dome from my days as a prospector, but my memory was clouded from years of drinkin’ Wild Snake and Second Best.

I hid myself on a rooftop across from Sally, firing shot after shot of Manstoppers at those rotting devils. That’s when I realized where I was. This was the outskirts of Lost Hope, A forsaken hole of zombie infested madness, some say the Zombie Master runs that town. By the Emperor boy, he does, I saw with my own eyes, sending forth that endless tide of mindless killers, standing on the bodies of Ol’ Barboza and Sally’s brother Mugzworth. His eyes gleaming all sorts o’ un-natural colors . I peeked over at Sally and realized she was down and I was outta ammo…The boys wouln’t stop screaming and their was nuthin we could do….

We managed to get away, just the two us. She died a few days later, and me well, I can barely walk and my wounds never really healed all that well…but here I am….

Like I said boy, I’ll never forgive that bastard Guilder.
Heh , Duke Alexandar. Duped us into killing each other so he could take over both our trade routes.
Left us down and out in zombie town.

_________________Time is an illusion. What has happend will happen again, what has not come to pass will do so again and again forever. What is currently happening will affect the future with it's ripples in the ocean of eternity.